18 September 2022 Abingdon Sport It was an encouraging post Covid return to normality for the boat club this summer, with lots of pupils out racing and doing well. Saturday 7 May saw over 100 pupils race for Abingdon at the Bedford Regatta - the first big regatta for the whole club post Covid. It was heartening to see the crews all back together to enjoy summer racing. Later in the season, 45 students made A finals at the National Schools Regatta, with highlights including a bronze medal for the J14B crew, 5th, 5th, 6th and 7th for the J15B, J14A, J15A, J16B crews. At the Henley Royal Regatta in July, the 1st VIII pre-qualified but, in a tough draw, lost out to the Australian Champions Kings School Parramatta. Rowing Abingdon students enjoyed an afternoon of canoe polo with Queen’s College Taunton on Sunday 22 May. This began with an inter school match which Abingdon won and then the rest of the session was spent training and playing friendly games with mixed teams. A particular well done goes to Edward Saunders in his last fixture for the school as an Upper Sixth leaver. Canoe Polo National Schools Squash Finals Abingdon’s KS4 Team achieved the outstanding feat of reaching the finals of the England Schools Championships in Nottingham. Representing the team were Alex Smith, Felix Loeffen, Luke Remmington, Alex Kleinknecht, Will Simpson and Wilf Barter. It was an exhausting but exciting day of squash. Our team was up against both national and international players, and they did outstandingly well, with Alex Smith and Felix Loeffen achieving particularly brilliant wins. Despite the fact that four of our six players are a year young, Abingdon came 8th in the country, which is an extraordinary achievement to cap a breakthrough year. Our thanks go to our brilliant coach Ben Rosec, ably supported by Guy Tupper. Abingdon seniors have been engaged in a number of important tennis matches throughout this term. In the Glanville cup in May, the first team beat Radley and progressed to the next round to play Sir William Borlase. The team played some phenomenal tennis, with Max Struthers and Tanguy Wache both taking their games to some close tiebreaks but, in the end, it was not enough to secure the win. In the Independent Schools League, a gruelling series of matches played over two days against 6 other schools, Abingdon narrowly missed out in the first round, placing them in Group 2 for the following day, where they competed against Charterhouse, Radley and St George’s. Abingdon was narrowly beaten to first place by deserved winners Radley and came out second in Group 2, placing them 6th overall. On Saturday 14 May, Abingdon’s top 32 players took on Radley again in the annual “Radlingdon” match. This tournament is always a good opportunity for more junior players to challenge the seniors and it was great to see so many of our younger players out on the courts. Having got a pair through to the final, Abingdon narrowly lost to Radley’s 1st pair. It was, nevertheless, a fun day with plenty of sport and a great experience. Upper Sixth Croquet On a very hot and sunny Wednesday afternoon in June, the Abingdon croquet team attended an away fixture at Radley College, involving over 20 students from Lower School to Upper Sixth. We may have lost 14.5-5.5, but the students very much enjoyed their first fixture in over 2 years and are looking forward to a rematch soon. Tennis
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUxNTM1